Wager based gaming continues to grow in popularity. In order to meet player demand, gaming machine manufacturers continue to develop new games and gaming machines.
Originally, wager based games comprised physical card, dice and similar games played at tables, and mechanical slot machines having physical spinning reels bearing printed symbols. In recent years, gaming machines have been developed which incorporate the latest technologies such as electronic video displays and sound systems for presenting extreme graphics and sounds. These machines may present slot-type games via graphical representations of spinning reels on a video display. Likewise, gaming tables may employ video screens, electronic chip trackers and other technologies.
Despite the use of such new technologies, the premise of wager based gaming remains the same. A player places a wager and attempts to achieve a winning outcome of a game. If the outcome of the game is a winning outcome, the player is paid winnings. In some cases, such as in slot-type games, the outcome of the game is entirely random. In other games, such as poker games, the outcome may depend upon player input such as the selection of cards which are held or discarded when forming a poker hand.
While the outcomes of these games cannot be controlled by the player, players are generally superstitious and believe that “luck” has much to do with whether they win or lose. As such, as described in the Background of U.S. Pat. No. 7,699,703, players often believe that outside factors have an impact upon the probability of their winning games.
For example, a player may play a gaming machine and receive several winning outcomes. That player may believe that the gaming machine is “hot” and thus not want to leave that gaming machine. In particular, players often believe that if they leave a “hot” machine and another player plays the machine, the streak of wins may end, so that when the player returns, the gaming machine has been affected by the intervening player's play.
Many newer games offer a variety of features which may extend or relate to more than one game event. For example, progressive jackpots are common for wagering game play. A progressive jackpot is an award which grows over time, such as based upon game wagers or the number of games played. The progressive jackpot may be awarded to the player who receives a certain qualifying winning outcome.
As one example, a single gaming machine might have an associated progressive jackpot. The progressive jackpot might start at $1000.00. A player might play 50 wagering games at the machine without receiving the progressive jackpot winning outcome. During that time, the progressive jackpot might grow to $1500.00. Having played so many games without having yet triggered the progressive jackpot winning outcome, the player may believe that such an outcome is imminent. As a result, the player may not wish to leave the gaming machine for fear that another player will play the machine and be the one who receives the progressive jackpot winning outcome.
Other games may include similar features such as bonuses. As one example, a player might play games in which the player collects certain bonus symbols, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,884 wherein a player may collect “cherry” symbols as they appear on slot reels. When the player has played a sufficient number of games to aggregate a predetermined number of bonus symbols, the player play be awarded a bonus award. As a result, the player may be reticent to leave a gaming machine after the player has a collected a large number of the symbols required for the bonus, knowing that another player might play the gaming machine and collect the few remaining required symbols and thus win the bonus.
Various attempts have been made to solve these issues. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0010309 describes a configuration in which a player might save a game state. As described, a player might identify themselves at a gaming machine, such as via a player club card. A player who is in the middle of a game might stop play and the status of the game may be stored. That player may then later return to the gaming machine and after identifying themselves, the status of the game may be restored based upon game state information stored with the player's identity so that the player may finish the game.
Such a feature has a number of drawbacks. First, such a feature does not prevent other players from playing a gaming machine between game plays by the player. Thus, for example, if the gaming machine had an associated progressive jackpot which grows for each game play at the gaming machine, an intervening player might still win the jackpot. In addition, this feature does not prevent other players from playing the gaming machine and ruining the player's luck. For example, a player might stop play after a number of winning outcomes because it has become late in the evening. The player may save the state of the last game. However, once the player leaves another player may play games at that same gaming machine during the night. When the player returns in the morning they may finish the game which was saved, but the player may perceive that all new games presented thereafter have been affected by the intervening player's play and may have resulted in a cessation of the winning streak.
Other feature which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,588,495 permits a player to “lock” a gaming machine. This may permit automated play of a number of games or may permit the player to continue to play games from a remote location. However, this solution also has a number of significant drawbacks.
Gaming machines which are located in casinos are typically very sophisticated and expensive devices. The machines include a number of security features, including features to store the state of games played at the gaming machine (such as in the event of a gaming machine failure) and include controllers and a plurality of peripheral devices such as coin acceptors, coin hoppers, bill validators, electronic displays and other components for receiving input from a player and presenting a game to a player. Such gaming machines may cost $10,000 or more per unit. The primary goal of a casino is to offer a sufficient number of gaming machines to meet the demands of all players who have traveled to the casino. Thus, a casino might have as many as 3000-4000 gaming machines. Given the cost of the gaming machines, however, this represents $30,000,000.00-$40,000,000.00 in gaming machines.
In the configuration described in these patents, a player may lock one of these gaming machines for automated or remote play. A significant problem with this configuration is that it takes one of the gaming machines on the floor of the casino out of use or service to players in the casino. Thus, patrons in the casino may wander from machine to machine looking for an available gaming machine, i.e. a machine which is not locked out by some remote player. This could quickly cause the players at the casino to become frustrated and disappointed as they search for available gaming machines, and thus cause them to leave the casino and travel to another casino where there are more gaming machines immediately available for play.
Also, the configuration described in these references does not solve the problem that the gaming machines can be played by multiple players. For example, a player might lock up a gaming machine so that they can play a number of automated games. However, at the end of the game play session, the gaming machine is still located on the gaming floor and is available for play by other players. Thus, though the player may favor a particular gaming machine at the casino because they believe it to be lucky, multiple different players may still play the gaming machine at different times and thus the player may perceive that the gaming machine has been affected by other players' play.
As one way of permitting players to play games at other than a dedicated gaming machine, some entities offer on-line gaming. While on-line wager-based gaming is currently not legal in the U.S., it is legal in other jurisdictions. In these jurisdictions, players typically access a game server from their computer. The game server may permit players to play multi-player games such as poker games.
One problem with online multi-player wagering games is player collusion. Players may attempt to work together when playing poker or similar games at a casino table. However, the dealer and other casino personnel employ various mechanisms to detect player collusion. Because the players are directed in front of the dealer, these methods are very effective.
However, in the online environment, player collusion is much more difficult to detect. For example, two players who are playing an online poker game may actually be talking directly to one another via a telephone line. This allows the players to collaborate relative to an on-line game, whereas such communications would easily be detected if the players were sitting at a casino game table.
Various attempts have been proposed for addressing collusion in online wagering game play. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,604,541 and 7,699,702 are directed to systems and methods in which each player's game play actions are monitored and then analyzed in an attempt to detect collusion. Such systems require complex algorithms to implement and attempt to detect, rather than prevent, collusion.